About Maldives
Where? What? and How? . . . . about Maldives !
THE MALDIVES; officially known as the Republic of Maldives. It is also referred as “Dhivehi Raajje’” by the Maldivians, which means “Island Kingdom”. The people of Maldives are referred as “Dhivehin” or “Maldivians”. The Maldives lies scattered from north to south across 750km sweep of the Indian ocean, 500km southwest of Sri Lanka. The Maldives comprises approximately 1200 islands, out of which 200 are officially classed as locally inhabited islands.
The islands are formed from coral layers and are flat, the highest point rarely being more than 6ft above sea level. However, they are protected from the elements by the atoll reefs, and rarely suffer major storms. These islands together with enumerable banks and reefs are grouped in a chain of nineteen atolls. These Atolls vary in size and in the number of islands they contain. [ Atoll: is referred to a group of islands. The word was derived from the Maldivian “atholhu”. ]